Claiborne

Garrett Island, located at the mouth of the Susquehanna River between Perryville and Havre de Grace, has a long and varied past. Artifacts suggest human presence dating back 5,000 to 8,000 years. While it's unclear if Captain John Smith landed there during his 1608 voyage, the island appears on his map, and some speculate it was the site of his meeting with the Susquehannock Indians.

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In the early 1600s, the island was known as Palmer’s Island, named for Edward Palmer, a member of the Virginia Company and a “curious and diligent antiquary” from Gloucester County, England. Palmer received a patent for theisland in 1622, during a time when the entire Chesapeake Bay region was considered part of Virginia.

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In 1634, Sir William Claiborne, a leader in the Virginia colony, became the first white man to establish trading posts on the Susquehanna River. He had already set up a settlement on Kent Island, but when the colony of Maryland was created and colonial boundaries redrawn, Claiborne’s posts were suddenly within Lord Baltimore’s new territory. Refusing to accept Maryland’s authority, Claiborne launched a series of attacks, including a 1635 raid on a Maryland fur trading post on Palmer’s Island—an act that marks Maryland’s first recorded instance of piracy. His continued hostility earned him the title of Maryland’s first pirate and led to the seizure of his lands by the Maryland Assembly in 1638 for “grievous crimes of pyracie and murther.”

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Over time, the island was also known as Watson’s Island before receiving its current name in honor of John Work Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, following the construction of the railroad bridge across the Susquehanna.